The D-Link DI-704 is a Broadband Home and Small Business Gateway with Four Switched Fast Ethernet Ports. It allows multiple computers to share a cable or DSL Ethernet Internet connection. It provides security as a firewall between a Local Network and the Internet. The DI-704 is targeted at small businesses and home users.

Fast and secure

D-Link offers a generous list of standard features with its DI-704 router. The built-in, auto-sensing, 10/100mbps switch provides each node on the network with a dedicated Ethernet connection, which dramatically boosts performance for bandwidth-intensive applications and multiplayer gaming. Users concerned about network security will appreciate the built-in, NAT-based firewall. While NAT is not an enterprise-level firewall solution, it’s an effective way to hide the IP addresses of the computers on your local network; the router’s IP address is all that’s visible to the Internet.

Dig deeper

The DI-704 router also has something to offer networking gurus. Via the Web-based interface, an administrator can allow or deny access to specific machines and/or ports on any machine in the local network. For example, with the Virtual Server option, you can set up a Web server on your network to accept external requests without exposing the entire machine to the Internet. Telecommuting and virtual private networking (VPN) are also fully supported via the point-to-point tunneling protocol (PPTP) and IPsec pass-through technologies. The DI-704 router even offers a backup serial COM port, which lets you share an Internet connection via an external analog or ISDN modem.

Summary: my first one had persistent problems: it would stop working after about an hour so after hassling with it (it always started working again after about an hour) I called tech support and the guy immediately suggested it was a hardware defect and i exchanged it no questions asked (locally). the replacement has worked fine for 6+ months. easy enough to configure, inexpensive (if you don’t count my time to figure out the problem) and the 4 ports are more than what I need (network printer+mac+_pc). recommended if you buy it locally and can exchange it if it fails within 30 days or so.

Summary: Absolutely the best customer service, and at 3 am to boot. I read a lot of the comments posted here and agree with all the positive and NONE of the negative. The doc’s for the router could have been a little better. My problem was that I didn’t use the “clone MAC address” which a call to customer service revealed and was quickly taken care of. D-Links has absolutely the best CS I have ever called. No questions about where I bought it or was it registered, just good down to earth help. I will be putting D-Link products at the top of my list for new toys wanted!! I only wish I had used their NIC card and not the one from Belkin who has absolutely the worst warranty procedure I have ever encountered!

Summary: I got the router the other day and installed it this morning, OK, yesterday morning technically, around 20 hours ago. EVERYTHING works, printer sharing included and exactly as I imagined it – i.e. neither of my two machines needs to be on for the other to print to the printer. It was a snap to install and get the printer working. I did have a problem configuring the router and I called technical support. The problem turned out to be the fact that I had disabled the DHCP Service in my Windows 2000 on the machine that I chose to configure the router. Thus, it couldn’t pick up an IP from the router. I had no problems getting right through to tech support at the 877 number supplied (toll free), and you get a tech support person from the start = real cool. First guy wasn’t too smart, IMO. He had me try a mess of stuff and finally gave up and said he was going to escalate to a higher level technician and I’d get a call. Meantime I discovered that my other machine could run the configuration program and I set things up. Caveat! When you choose a password (if you DO choose a non-blank password to access router configuration), don’t use more than 9 characters. If you do, only the first 9 are stored and if you try putting in your PW with more than 9 characters, you are rejected. I was about to call them for that (couldn’t login) but I figured it out – put in the first 9. The next guy I got had me assign an IP instead of using DHCP for my problem machine. Then everything worked. While on hold I realized that my printer wasn’t on their website’s list of supported printers for the 704p. Bummer. Why? I asked. My HP4M is certainly designed to work with a print server – it’s primarily a network printer. The technician said I should look for the item in the FAQ on how to set up your printer on the 704p. This does NOT involve using the driver supplied on the CD. It’s just a Windows configuration thing. It works fine. The technician followed up our conversation by sending me a cool email with a number of very useful links. I’d say this is very good tech support. I reenabled the DHCP Service on my number one machine and reset the TCP/IP settings to get an automatically assigned IP and DHCP’s working on both machines now. The pleasantest surprise is that my VPN at work is functioning – no tweaks necessary. Now I’ve got to figure out how to get file sharing working on my LAN. Got a great deal on this, about $40 at buy.com after $20 rebate, and I hear it’s available for $40 – $20 MIR right now at Fry’s! What a deal!

Summary: Since my son started playing Xbox live I needed to upgrade my original 2-3 year old D-link (DI-524; basic g) router. After research, and reading all the horror stories/reviews about each manufacturer’s offering of routers, I decided I might as well stay with what has worked for me: D-link (also, I use D-link’s “SecureSpot” hardware security and I figured compatibility might be improved if I stayed with a D-link router.)

I chose D-link’s DIR-625 Platinum series (Rangebooster N) router. Carefully, I followed the instructions to a “t” — disconnecting my old router first, running the cable modem’s ethernet cable directly to a single PC, and installing the new D-link software — I was relieved (and pleasantly surprised) that it could not have been easier. Along the way, and as prompted, I downloaded the latest firmware. After successfully getting the “main” pc surfing the Internet, I added others just as easily and without installing the CD software on each pc (I either plugged in the ethernet cable to an open port on the router, or I entered my security key on the wireless laptops.)

The range is MUCH improved; I’m not sure about the speed (but I wasn’t having a problem before.) I think most others who are careful to follow clear, simple instructions they shouldn’t have a problem.

2.User umdajs said:

Pros: Amazing range. Simple setup. Comprehensive features

Cons: Not much faster then my old 54mps Netgear

Summary: Easy setup when I had my laptop connected directly to the router. When I then tried to get online with my desktop after setup couldnt get online. I called d-link and they suggested unistalling and reinstalling my usb wireless adaptor drivers and that did the trick no problems after that. works great. Amazing range. I have the Belkin N wireless usb adaptor and about 50 feet away and 3 walls i get 80-90% connectivity, or excellent for you XP users. Only bummer was it is not much faster then the 54mps netgear I had which is why I really upgraded.

Updated
The range and speed are very good using the N band. The theoretical for the router is 300mbs download speed, but the actual is 150 mbs. Then of course your limited a second time by the ISP. I have comcast, so the actual actual speed has averaged 16 mbs. This is a decent increase over what I had before with my 54 mbs Netgear which averaged about 8-10 mbs download speed.

3.User takemout said:

Pros: Great Range and Speed

Cons: No gigabit ports

Summary: This is the best router I have ever owned. It has great speed and range. I have been using the router for about a 2 weeks and it has not dropped connection. The firmware offers plenty options and customization. I have 4 bars everywhere in my home now. No dead spots. The was easy but I have a cable modem so the only thing I had to do was change the mac address and turn on the wireless security.

D-Link’s Wireless HD Media Player features ActiveTV Online, which gives you access to hundreds of free and premium online channels that you can stream to your home entertainment system.

EXPERIENCE HD

Experience the stunning picture quality of High-Definition (HD) video and crystal clear sound clarity of digital audio with the D-Link® MediaLounge™ Wireless HD Media Player (DSM-520). With the DSM-520, you can sit in the comfort of your living room along with friends and family and enjoy media content available on a networked PC or Network Attached Storage (NAS)1 on your big-screen TV and sound system. The DSM-520 enables streaming of videos, music, and photos over a wireless 802.11g or wired Ethernet connection (a wired network is recommended for optimal video streaming). In addition, the DSM-520 provides a USB 2.0 port in the front panel for instant access to media stored on removable USB flash drives.

CONNECTIONS FOR VIRTUALLY ALL APPLICATIONS

The DSM-520 is optimized for HD picture and digital audio quality with the built-in High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) port. Connect the DSM-520 to your HDTV using the HDMI connection and enjoy the clarity of digital audio and sharp picture quality with resolutions of up to 1080i (HDMI cable sold separately). Other video connectors include component video, S-video, and composite (RCA) output, ensuring compatibility with virtually all television sets. The DSM-520 also supports coax and optical digital audio output for delivering high fidelity digital surround sound. In addition, the DSM-520 supports popular media formats3, including HD video in either Windows Media® Video 9 or MPEG-44 format. And with support for Windows® Media Player 115, files protected by Windows Media Digital Rights Management (WMDRM) can be streamed from your PC to your entertainment center.

Pros:
1) You can stream radio from many different internet sources & most are free.
2) System is pretty much plug/play. If you have media on your computer it will play on your TV through the 520.
3) I back-up all my DVD’s into DIVX format and 520 can read this format. However you must rename extension from .divx to .avi.
4) 520 increases the quality. I have a HD TV and with an HDMI cable quality is better then normal DVD even though with DivX a movie is compressed from >5GB to <700MB.
5) You can set up different media centers on different computers. As a result your entire family can log their media onto the 520.
6) Buffer ? Evidently some buffer is present. I rebooted my computer during a movie (accidentally) and the movie continued to play for over 3 minutes. Once it stopped it picked back up where it left off once computer was restored.

Cons: Photo thumbnail support is horrible, UI can be improved, no support for bread crumb, no music album art, video forward/rewind functionality can be improved.

Summary: If you are in the market for Media Receiver/Hub then you may end up buying this. Direct connection to the USB drive open up lot of option for many users.

D-Link DSM-520 Media Receiver (D-link call it MediaLounge) is one the best among the available media receiver in the market. Not only it’s much better than it’s predecessor DSM-320, but with ton’s of additional features it’s affordable too. Having USB thumb drive support in the front gives option to the user to play video files directly from the external hard drive.

It works great with Windows Media Connect and TwonkyVision media server. Besides all kind of video support, DivX support was surprise for me.

Computers do not require Internet access all the time; neither do switches utilize all ports at all times. When a computer or network equipment is shut down, switches often remain on and continue to consume considerable amounts of power. With D-Link Green Technology, D-Link switches can automatically detect link status and reduce power usage of ports that are idle. Computers or any connecting parties set to standby mode (not power off), however, will not provide significant power savings.

Overall Power Savings Per Day

For a traditional switch, power consumption remains constant even when the ports are not in use. In a standard workday scenario where PCs are used for 10 hours a day and powered off 14 hours a day, and connected to the switch using 20 meter cables, D-Link Green Technology can save up to 40%* power used for each system.

Our first product review for Its Geek Time is this nifty gigabit network switch brought to you by D-Link. For years D-link has taken a back seat to bigger companies like Linksys and Netgear for home network equipment. In recent years D-Link has increased their product quality and can contend with the big guys on an equal footing. This switch is a product that proves that.

The first thing to note about this switch is it is a gigabit switch with 8 ports for less than $50. A comparable Netgear or Linksys switch will cost you much more money. The other important thing about its speed is you can connect 10/100 devices to it and not lose gigabit connectivity to gigabit enabled devices that are also connected to it. On older gigabit switches, the switch would throttle down to the slowest device connected to it.

Another new feature on this switch is its power saving feature. Ports that are not in use are turned off so the device uses less power over all. This turns into cost benefits from less electricity usage, less heat generated by the product, and a longer life span due to less wear and tear. In an age where electricity prices are at an all-time high, anything that saves power is a welcome addition to many homes and offices.

In conclusion, this switch is recommended for any home network or small office network that is on a budget and wants gigabit functionality.

The D-Link Xtreme N™ Duo Wireless Bridge/Access Point is designed for users looking to create a wireless network or to connect multiple wired devices to an existing wireless network. Xtreme N Duo is the latest addition to the award-winning Xtreme N product family. Duo means the DAP-1522 works with next generation dual band (2.4GHz or 5GHz)* 802.11n wireless devices as well as legacy 802.11g products.

Bring your wired devices into the Wi-Fi world with the DAP-1522 Xtreme N® Duo Wireless Bridge. You’ll be Xtremely glad you did.

These products use the current draft version of the 802.11n standard. Compatibility with other draft-n and current 802.11n products is guaranteed by the Wi-Fi Alliance. However, some features were added in later revisions of the spec, and it is possible that they will not work correctly. In most cases a firmware upgrade will solve any problems (consider if you feel confident performing such an update). Also, while 802.11n is designed to be backwards compatible with 802.11g, 802.11b and 802.11a, it had been noticed that -n can interfere with the operation of current 802.11b and g products.

HD Movie :and You Tube streaming on to my TV work excellent, which is really all that matters. Customer support, which you will need to set it up, was probably the most knowledgeable I have worked with in recent years. Works with Apple Time Capsule..

Cons: Difficult to set-up unless you happen to have a d-link router and use the one-button set-up. Call 24/7 help desk and they will walk you through set up. Manuals are weak. Also, range is limited. Can’t go in a drawer or cabinet. Needs to sit on top..

Summary: For the price, it is a good product. Actual data streaming works very well, which is ultimately all that matters. Manuals are weak but customer service is strong. Range is limited, but sufficient if you don’t mind putting the unit on the surface.

bc0203 said:

Pros: Easy, pushbutton setup, includes 4-port hub..

Cons: Web interface could be a bit easier to access..

Summary: I have a home theater system with multiple devices that require Internet access, some of them are not wireless. The D-Link DAP-1522 allows me to route everything through a single access point, with all devices set to “wired” mode and the router assigning DHCP addesses to each device.